US President Donald Trump has spoken out in favor of selling the CNN news channel if its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery changes ownership. The streaming service Netflix initially attempted to acquire the company. And it subsequently received an offer from the media conglomerate Paramount Skydance. CNN often reports critically on the president, according to the DPA news agency.
Trump pushes for sale of CNN
According to NBC News, the president’s words are noteworthy because the proposed deal with Netflix would not include the cable channels owned by Warner Bros., namely CNN and TNT. Trump said that CNN should be sold either together with the entire parent company or separately.
“I think CNN should be sold because the people who run it now are, in my opinion, either corrupt or incompetent,” the president said Wednesday at the White House. “I don’t think they should be entrusted with running CNN. I would say that any deal should be. It should be guaranteed and it should be certain that CNN is part of it, or it should be sold separately,” he said.
Trump attacks CNN again, while Netflix and Paramount compete for Warner Bros. Discovery
Trump also said that CNN, which often confronts the president’s statements and gives a voice to politicians with different opinions, spreads poison and lies. “I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” he noted. Streaming giant Netflix is competing with media conglomerate Paramount Skydance. Now owned by the family of Trump supporter Larry Ellison, for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount’s investors include Affinity Partners, an investment firm owned by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Paramount wants to acquire the entire company, including CNN and other television networks, for $108.4 billion. Netflix, on the other hand, has agreed with Warner’s management to acquire the studio and streaming business for nearly $83 billion. According to their agreement, the television networks are to be spun off into a separate company.
Source: Reuters
